Garden Clean Up and Implaments for Writing

I know it’s still early for this aspect of being in the garden – yet only sort of. As the flowers go by sometimes it’s nice to clean up the dead debris, stems, a little dead heading, (which done to the Grateful- can be rather silly, when one thinks upon it too long), then of course there is the ever present sneaky weed, pushing it’s way to look like a desired plant. So, what’s the point you might ask ~ well.
It’s all about what you might be able to use in a way that you might not have thought about before. Confessing that I myself would not have come to this on my own, at least not for long after it was shown to me, by a gifted gardener and artist (not sure which order she would prefer) and fabulous friend Lisa Whelan. So I’m going to pass this on as way to reuse, have some fun, and get yourself a free pen. Recycling at is most basic ~
Day lilies have hollow stems, after the flower it self goes by it leaves behind a long stem, which when left to dry then becomes stiff and use able as a writing or drawing tool. I usually wait till they can be pulled right out of the center of the plant – about this time of year. That way you have all the length to play use to your heart’s desire. Cutting the stem at a slant gives you a nice writing or sketching point – the length if used long invites you to loosen up a bit. Or you can smash the tip and get a much bolder line. See what works for you.
Why is this here in the kitchen you ask, come now my friends, most of us know it all happens in the Kitchen at my house.
Have a great day, have some fun ~ no Day lilies? Oh, I bet if you took a walk about your neighbor hood , all else fails give a shout. Enjoy your day!




photo ~ Day Lily stem pen and a little Zen-ness.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb Crisp

With it’s deep red stalks and giant green leaves, it calls to us that have it growing in our gardens. It has a way of calling out even to those who have no garden’s ~ it is now in season. It calls out to be eaten, mixed with sweeter fruits that are also coming into season like strawberries. It is tender and sweeter right now, later in the season the leaves will get bigger, large enough to use as a pattern for a bird bath in fact (that as they say is another story). The stalks themselves will become thicker, tougher need more sugar, honey or juice to cut the sour bitter taste.

What is it Rhubarb? Botanically speaking, it is a vegetable, relative of buckwheat, it has an earthy, sour flavor, rarely eaten raw; we most often treat it as a fruit. Nicknamed the “pie plant”. Please take note that the leaves are not to be eaten raw or cooked they can be poisonous.

Aside from making a wonderful pie or crisp it’s also got a few health benefits, high on the list is the fact that Rhubarb is high in fiber. It is believed to have a positive effect on lowering blood pressure, along with aiding in indigestion, restoring a balance to an acid stomach. It has been found to have anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergy properties, and anti-cancer properties. Rhubarb extract can also be helpful in diminishing the problem of hot flashes

So enough already….you say bring on the Rhubarb, oh, yes indeed I have seen it in the Farmer’s Market, long thin juicy red stalks calling to me….I am blessed today is Wednesday, I get to walk down to visit the grower’s at our local Farmer’s Market . Now where did I see them…



Rhubarb Crisp

About 4 cups of ½ inch pieces of Rhubarb
¼ - ½ cups of sugar (this is a matter of preference, not sure go with the ½ cup)
zest of one lemon
juice from said lemon or about 2 –3 Tablespoon
a pinch of salt

Mix together and put in a buttered pie plate or and 8 x 8 square.

Topping
¼ –1 cup of brown sugar
1 ½ cup Old Fashioned Oatmeal
¼ cup butter or oil
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and sprinkle/spread over Rhubarb mixture.
Bake at 350 for about 35- 40 minutes
If possible serve warm, whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
Yummy –

Change orders or things you could do differently right off the top

Use the smaller amount of sugar decrease rhubarb by a cup, adding 1 ½ cups strawberries chopped, or apples
If you’re not an oatmeal eater, ( though this adds to the heart healthiness of a dessert) change the oatmeal to 1 cup flour, gluten free use buckwheat flour

Roll out a pie crust and make it a pie instead.



photo taken about an hour after I dropped off a crisp to my tasters at Coffee By Design on India street - wheat-free and vegan :)

Intimate Sacred Sensuous

Ah, what was your first sensation, first thought upon reading those three words. And in her kitchen? YES! Chili and Chocolate. Dark sweet, oh so sensuous with hot tingling chilies to gather the energy deep in the belly, deep into the heart of the Soul.
I have been asked the question, “Might I share a Recipe” Not just any recipe, mind you ~ a truffle recipe. They are sacred, sensuous, oh and indeed intimate. I have never been one to hold out on the sharing of something like food, if I personally don’t get to create food for your plate, then let someone I know do it. Passing my love, my feelings of the Sacred for food and community; (2 makes community you and me, it only takes one savoring the taste, feel, the wonder of food to make it intimate.) Food by it’s very nature is Sacred, Life giving.

Chocolate has a history ( more to the point her-story) as being a food of and from the Gods and Goddess. Chocolate’s story began about 4,000 years ago, symbolizing life and fertility. For the Mayan’s, (or for any of us) what could be more important? At different times in it’s life it has been used as a health elixir, the cocoa beans as currency, then of course in religious rituals, least we forget that scientists have even proven it aphrodisiacal qualities, along with it ability to lower blood pressure when eaten in moderation. Chocolate has lived a long and diverse existence, lived in many cultures, from it’s beginnings in Mesoamerica.

Add chilies, upping the ante, bringing on the fire so to speak. Passion is kindled, as any one who has seen the movies Like Water for Chocolate and/or Chocolat, will surely remember. Chilies also have their own health benefits, helping to prevent congestion, fighting inflammation, soothing intestinal diseases, burning fat, protecting the heart by reducing cholesterol. It has also been shown to help fight some cancers.
So back to the original request , “Would looove your chocolate truffle recipe!” I love to share food, to ask for a recipe is akin to… (well, I’ll let your imagination run), for me there is an intimacy in the sharing of something that I hold to be life giving. To share how to make that item when I can not be there, it is the same, one invokes the person that the original recipe comes from every time they make said creation. Memories, the body re-members, the senses of taste, smell, perhaps even stories told.
Enjoy, I will think of you, as you think of me. To the fullness of our senses, we will met Intimately, Sacred, and Sensually ~ To your Health, Life and Love ~


Rho's Chili Chocolate Pate/Truffles

16 oz good dark chocolate ( if you’re a milk chocolate person use milk – just use good quality – this is not a place to skimp)
1 1/3-1/2 cup heavy cream ( no light, no fat stuff here either)
1 Tablespoon sweet butter
1 7 ounce can chipotle peppers or
1/16-1/4 cup crushed red chilie peppers, the amount will depend on you, smaller is better
*note the mixture gets hotter as it sets up



Heat ½ cup of the heavy cream throw in a crushed red chilies (know your chilies- how hot are they?), let sit for ½ hour and strain.

Now melt chocolate in a double boiler, do not over heat, when melted leave in double boiler or bowl over hot water add the butter then:

Add strained cream to rest of ingredients in a double boiler, mix well, mixture will get glassy or shiny looking and feel thicker . If using the chipotle peppers, mince - put in with the cream together. Taste – if there is not a little bit of a bite and you want it hotter now is the time to add a bit more chilies in powered form, go lightly till you know what works best for you.

Making Pate –pour into a mold and let sit until cool and formed. Tip – put Saran Wrap in mold – it makes it easier to get it out of the mold later.

Making Truffles – leave in the top part of the double boiler or bowl set in fridge let set up about an hour. Form mixture into balls (using a melon baler helps make them the same size plus it’s easier. Roll balls in hands ( I put on gloves, the heat from your hands melts the chocolate and leaves your hands sticky otherwise) to make smooth, then in bowl with coca, crushed nuts or Confectioner’s sugar to coat. Put in mini cups or not. May also be dipped in more melted chocolate.
I have also been know to put this mixture on Spoons, let almost set up like for the truffles, use a knife to make a clean cut across the spoon, serve them on a plate with fresh whipped cream. For large mingling groups I put the spoons all on one plate, handles facing out, whipped cream with chocolate shavings in the middle.


photo of chocolate heart from Chocolate History Time Line @chocolatemonthclub

It's All About the Process.

Food, art, friendships, these things don’t tend to happen in an instant. There is also a great deal of mystery and alchemy that happens in each of these processes to my way of thinking any way. I am grateful for those moments of magic, when you have a sense of what you want something to come out like – yet you’re not sure what it will be like in the next moment.

I have gotten to know people in ways that I have had to stand back and go WOW! I would never have thought or known how amazing this person is, if I’d not been willing to stay with the process of getting to know them, of looking beyond what met my eye.

Food, the time it takes to prepare a dish, that brings us to a place of comfort when we need it. Having to check to see if we have all the ingredients…then the process of preparing….We know perhaps what it will be …yet each time, the moment is new. The dish recalling old memories and creating new places.

I am constantly amazed when I silk screen at the magic that happens there as well. I have a general idea of what I think I want – yet until the colour meets the screen and the paper – the Image of what will be is unknown.

There is a certain amount of that kind of mystery and magic when it comes to living into our authentic selves as well. We are not always sure how or what that may look like to others. My question is does it feel right inside? A bit edgy as we make the changes we need as we become truer to who we are? I think all of this is a good thing, it says, out of our comfort zone. It gives us a chance to laugh and or cry….and as my grandchild once said to me…..”You know a good cry just washes everything clean.” A new beginning.

As I have watched myself change some of my favorite recipes to fit the fact that I can no longer eat wheat, I have found I am more able to stay with that same sort of gentle process, as I look deeper into me. I am always grateful to friends who are willing to let me try out new food creations – I find that I am also eternally Amazed and Grateful that as I grow into myself, deeper, truer, more of ME – that my friends are willing to stand by my side and Love me all the more.

I Hope for all of you, the same wonder as you explore who YOU are becoming as the tides of the world ask us to stand up and be counted. To walk to the Well of Compassion, to Honour all Life, to be the Divine Beings we are meant to be.

May Grace be with you.





If you close you will see how the image changes...each colour adding itself to the print. Begin- April 14th - May 13th 2010 Moon calendar.

Re-membering Ourselves As Rain.

Consider that the human body is about 60-72% water. Our bones are approximately 22-26% water. That we can live with out food for days, yet we must have water in some form to keep from dehydration. That water pure and simple holds life.

So why is it that when it rains, do we become upset, despondent, down right depressed? Not always, yet sometimes this does happen. There are times that we pray for rain, are happy and grateful even as it finally starts it’s rhythm on the ground, roofs, our skin.

I am wondering since it is my belief that we are all connected to each other, to the Earth, it’s plants, animals, minerals. That maybe we become despondent when it rains, for we miss being able to fall from the sky, that somehow our bodies re-member being a part of the greater cycle of life, re-member begin rain.

I would like to invite us to consider that perhaps the rain is sharing information with us that we have forgotten how to hear. Dr. Masaru Emoto, wrote a book the Secret Life of Water, were in he talks and shares with us some of what he learned by watching individual crystals of water. Seems that like snow flakes no two are exactly alike. Just as none of us, though we are similar we are not exactly alike.

What information might we be learning if instead of being upset about the rain, we were to realize and embrace the importance of it’s falling. Not only are we 72% water, for the Earth, our home it is the same. We all need hydration. Hydra – hydro form the Greek meaning water. There are cycles and season, in which more rain seems to fall. Here in the Northern Hemisphere that is usually Spring. Spring’s elemental force is water. Spring begins in a fire sign, Aries ( to thaw what has been frozen) and quickly moves into a water sign, Pisces (bringing growth, and or emotions of change).

Tears, like rain help clear a path, open new spaces for growth. Water is Sacred, we have indeed forgotten how to hear the messages that it brings. Might we invite ourselves to consider begin in harmony with the rain, with our tears? Invite ourselves to Re-member when we bathed in the waters of the womb. What an amazing mystery and miracle that is! Yes, in some many ways we too are the rain!

What might it take for us to Re-member when we ourselves were the rain, might we return to being rain? What messages are waiting for us in each drop of this Life giving force? How often in pain have you stood in a shower of warm water running down your body, feel familiar? Or sat in a tub for relaxation, and comfort? For me there is a gentle quietness that comes when I am surrounded by water.

Today as you, stop for a glass of water, invite yourself to feel and know how amazing and Sacred the water in your hand is, what does it have to offer your body? What is it that we have to offer the water of the world? Both of us are offering Life.

May you find yourself in harmony with the water or waters you come in contact with today. In ending let me share with you a Madagascan saying 'Let your love be like the misty rain, coming softly, but flooding the river'. May we too, walk softly giving thanks for the rain, even when it floods the river.




Photo - after 3 days of heavy rain in March...I found this in a friend's garden, I too wanted to be inside the drops hanging from the branch, knowing what life will spring forth.

Over Coffee

Recently, I sat at the end of a gathering of women, that had come together via a circle created by my friend, mentor, couch and life student Lael. She had us do an exercise of telling us each other, what we Appreciated and Learned from each other during the 6 months the group had been together sharing our experiences around a theme.

We were not given an opportunity to go oh, it’s nothing or any other silly disclaimer we might have in fact used to not take in what was said. Afterwards someone asked if we would be willing to send what we had said to each other ~ Fabulous Idea. Yet, I want to take it one step further.

How many of us love to receive postal mail? How many of us when we receive a letter truly take the time to sit with the letter? I got to thinking over coffee, and touching base with a friend this AM via IM. What if and how sweet would it be if each day over a cup of coffee, I would sit and write out a letter to a friend letting them know how important they are in my life.

Letting them know what it is I appreciate about them. What gifts they have given me in the way of growth. No not in an email- but in a real hand written note. How much this act enriches my day, when I send out the random letter here and there – yes, I do sometimes send and receive notes from my sweet child; (who by the by is an adult – that I facebook, email, Skype and generally speak to at least once a week) still my heart lights at this gift of a letter. I find I save it for the end of my day when I can sit in my kitchen and savor the moment. In my life and perhaps most of us – Life, Love, happens in the kitchen. There are the smells of cooking, (love), sometimes dirty dishes, (life); it is the place that I believe most of us go to Re-member some important detail of our childhood.

See how it goes for you. I am grateful this morning to another friend, who felt with love and care to make my computer wire-less even in my smallest of NY style apartments in Portland, ME. He makes me smile with the love and growth we have shared. Yes, are you listening – you are forgiven for the breakfast debacle. So over coffee, I am sharing this with you. Reach out and touch a friend, share a cup of coffee even if they live across town, write them a little note – let them in on how you feel.

All love.

ps who might have a fabulous picture of a cup of coffee I might use?

In the stew...

So, before you read to far; hoping for a recipe for some fantastic stew, sorry, there isn’t one. This is more about our becoming us. Or more exactly the me that I have become.

This past year I have been blessed to be re-membered into the lives of two wonderful women that knew me at an earlier time in my life. Living as a single Mom in a little community in Colorado, Manitou Springs. Now what has gotten me to thinking about stew is both of these women said upon seeing me “Wow, you’ve not changed a bit!” This of course was meant as a compliment

Yet, it got me to thinking about all the wonder and changes that I have been through since I have seen both of these women. The spice of friends. The flavors as events that have helped shape me to this point. Things I have been witness too and the great amount of learning that has come my way.

Though to the eye it may appear that I’ve not changed, when for me I believe I have grown into my handsome good looks. In many ways we are all a bit of a stew pot; a magical alchemical process. From our first beginnings, the story that lives within us of ancestral beings. That we come from stardust, and carry within our chest the sound of Mother Earth as a heart beat. The mystery of how we swim in a pot of all the molecules of everything that has ever been and is ever becoming.

Awe is the word that comes to mind when I sit with some of the stories, that are shared with me. They too are a part of all that I am. I often wonder at my own ‘story’; would I be me if certain things were not a part of the great list of ingredients that have been tossed in? Would I live so intensely? ( This by the by is what I have been told about myself.) Would I choose to find the beauty, the laughter, see the sorrow? I will never know ~ what I do know is that I feel blessed, grateful and filled with Grace. I have been loved, been given opportunities a plenty to give love. It is my plan to continue to do so till my last exhalation of the Divine, that is my breathe.

I have been thrilled at times with the manifestations that marinating in my own stewing process have brought about. There have been sad nesses, hurts and fears, all apart of the mixing and marinating, the process of becoming, of blooming into who I am as are you. (Re-member earlier I said we are all in the pot together?)

So to those of you, who have traveled beside me as friend ~ I Thank you for all the magic we have and are sharing. To those that I only know as whispers on the wind ~ you I thank also ~ on the wind I feel your Being. I am greatly blessed. I am Grateful to be in the world with YOU and your stew- ness. Yum!

May we all continue to marinate to the fullness of our flavors, talents, full of love and compassion for each other and our selves.

Okay – I fibbed here is one of my favorite stews…soups; hmmm I wonder at the actual difference, but as they say ~ that is another story.


Stone soup (chick pea/vegetable) Gypsy Soup serves 8-12
Approx ¼ cup olive oil
2 medium onions chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
3 stalks celery chopped
2-3 each, carrot, sweet potato chopped
1 winter squash butternut or acorn
1 sweet pepper – red if possible
3 cups cooked chickpeas or 1 ½ cup dry (soak overnight)

3 cups stock, (made from any veggies or herbs left from day before) or H2O

Sauté 1st 3 items, in olive oil, adding in carrot, in large soup pot. If using dry chickpeas, cook before hand till they are tender enough to place on your tongue, press to the roof of your mouth and mash.. Mix all ingredients together….Let cook and meld flavors together

Season with:
Couple dashes of cayenne
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaf
2 T tamari
1 T paprika

The original recipe and inspiration for this, comes from the first Moosewood Cookbook

picture of me at about 4 maybe 5...I thank Tirzah Griffin at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tirzymcwirzy/ for scanning this picture for me.